Customer Reviews

Behind the Rising Sun [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - France ]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I saw this movie on AMC and because I teach a Communication course with Intercultural communication included, I knew that I just had to have it!
The movie takes place in the early 1940s and revolves around a Japanese "national" who returns from America to Japan and ends up fighting in WWII, against the Americans. Behind the Rising SUn also has a variety of communication elements including interpersonal and language communication.
The movie was actually on the blacklist during WWII because it was considered ahead of its time.

Awesome movie, it was just what I thought it would be.

Those who enjoyed Robert Ryan's 1949 boxing noir THE SET-UP (VHS) (DVD) can also see him box a sumo wrestler (!) in RKO's BEHIND THE RISING SUN, when he as Lefty O'Doyle takes on a martial arts expert (Mazurki).

That's however just an amusing sideshow highlight in Edward Dmytryk's generally grim picture, which concerns a Japanese father and son who by story's end adopt views in opposition to how each originally felt. The younger man (Neal) returns to his homeland from a U.S. college in an Americanized state that leaves him estranged from Japanese tradition. He eventually turns rabidly militaristic and commits atrocities in China, while his once pro-Japan father (Naish) becomes so appalled by their country's barbaric expansionism, he expresses dissent in the time-honored Japanese manner.

A heavy-handed script shows our then-enemy in the worst possible light: infanticide, pederasty and intentional drug addiction of Chinese children are all offered as evidence of Nipponese infamy. Japanese civilians are depicted as victims of their fascistic government, with hapless (and innocent) Hirohito hamstrung by a powerful military junta.

Conversely, since the USSR was then our ally, a Soviet character named Boris (Givot) is presented in a positive light by director Dmytryk, who was at that time a Communist Party member. By decade's end this political affiliation got him blackballed by the HUAC as one of the original infamous 'Hollywood Ten.' Dmytryk was actually imprisoned several months for refusing to testify before the House committee. He eventually did name names, which made him a pariah in many Hollywood circles.


As of 10/09, "Rising Sun" was not available on DVD.


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(5.2) - Behind the Rising Sun (1943) - Margo/Tom Neal/J. Carrol Naish/Robert Ryan/Gloria Holden/Donald Douglas/George Givot/Leonard Strong/Mike Mazurki

I've been looking for this film for some time. I only ever saw it once and was excited to see what I believe to be the first
Boxing vs Karate fight sequence in a USA film. Now the director Edward Dmtriyk, always worked with Maurice Zuberano one of the best storyboard artists in film. So I'm sure I will like the rest of the movie. This is why I have only given it 4 stars as I have to see the whole film to give it 5 stars. I bought this film on VHS for the fight alone.